Today, many types of exercise equipment are available for fitness and medical purposes. These purposes include improving cardiovascular ability, toning and strengthening muscles, controlling weight, and improving flexibility. Several types of equipment aid a user in this regard by creating some form of effective resistance against repeated body movements.
A Pilates-style combo chair is one such exercise device. The frame of this device is a basic box-like structure designed to rest on a horizontal surface such as a floor and support a user sitting or standing on the top of the chair frame. One or two spring biased pivot arms protrude out of an open front side of the frame. Each of the pivot arms has one end fastened to the rear of the frame. A step support is mounted on the free end of each pivot arm. In order to perform various exercise movements, the user typically sits on or supports his or her body from the top of the chair frame, and steps or presses down on the step support with his or her foot or hand to rotate the pivot arm downward. One or more elastic members, such as coil springs, provide tension against the user's downward movements of the pivot arm or arms. Each end of such a coil spring typically includes a metal ring for attaching that end of the spring to either the step support or the pivot arm and the other end to an anchor structure fastened to the frame of the chair. One such anchor structure is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,919,279.
The anchor structure in U.S. Pat. No. 6,919,279 is a flat preferably sheet metal plate structure that has an upper attachment portion, a bottom attachment portion, and plurality of arms extending laterally from a central portion between the attachment portions. The attachment portions are fastened to the bottom, or back, and the top rear portion of the chair frame, with the central portion extending upward therebetween with outwardly and upwardly extending side arms resembling a Saguaro cactus shape.
The metal ring extending from the rear end of each of the coil springs attached to the pivot arms is hooked over and onto one of the anchor plate arms to retain the spring in place during exercise. The metal ring at the end of the coil spring loosely fits onto the anchor plate arm. During repeated use of the chair exercise apparatus, these metal rings wear against the anchor plate arms. Therefore there is a need for a snugging and retaining device that operatively retains the spring ring on the anchor plate arm so as to minimize such wear. It would also be helpful if there were some way for a user to easily determine by touch whether the metal ring is securely positioned properly on the anchor plate arm.